Spotlight: Viva La Vegan Grocery

For Gentle World founders Light and Sun, a vegan supermarket was once a dream, when they would search in vain for delicious vegan food, way back in the seventies.

Now that dream has come true, with a retail outlet located in Rancho Cucamonga, California, Viva La Vegan… A 100% vegan grocery boasting ‘the largest vegan product selection on earth’.

Honestly, a single photo of this place simply cannot do it justice. To get some idea of the scale of this store, check out these pictures from the company’s Facebook page. The idea of an entire store of that size filled with only vegan items almost makes a person want to pay a visit to Cucamonga, or maybe even move there.

Thankfully, Viva La Vegan’s website also offers online shopping options, for those of us not fortunate enough to be blessed with such conveniences in our hometown.

As confirmed by the company’s co-owner Isaak Iftikhar, the people who own and operate the company are vegan in much more than word. They do not sell any bee products whatsoever, nor do they sell any products with refined white sugar unless it is certified vegan. They also maintain that they rigorously check the sources of the ingredients carried to ensure they were (and are) never tested on animals.

To quote Isaak:

“We have written into the articles of incorporation that Viva La Vegan Grocery shall never sell/profit from any products or services that are not vegan. Viva La Vegan Grocery was established for the sole purpose of ending the unnecessary suffering and exploitation, the adversities to our natural environment, and the impact to human health as a result of the consumption and use of animals. We facilitate the transition into a vegan lifestyle by making products and shopping convenient and affordable. We plan to make a vegan lifestyle accessible to as many people as possible. Our store gives living form to the ethical idea that a grocery store can be free from all animal products. Any economic gain from the revenue/profit is for the primary purpose of advancing Veganism and not for personal concentrated wealth. We support vegan principals as they prevail over self-interest.”

For those of us with a vision of a truly gentle world, Viva La Vegan is cause for celebration… A real-life glimpse of what a vegan world might someday look like.